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1998 Gre atAmerican Championship Hillclimb By Karel Kra merlD irt Ride r BILLINGS, MT, JULY25-26 e annual Us (Montana riders) vs . Th em (r iders from e ve r y w he r e else) battle picked up w here it left off in 1997. Montana rid er s w ere th e first over the hill in most classes and former event cham pion Sha n no n Cha m be rlain even se t fas t time fo r the even t, but in th e end the four m ajo r money classes came down to an even split with the locals, Chamberlain winning the Open Unlimited class o n a mo tocro ss-framed Suzuki GSX-Rl 1oo an d multitim e champion Dusty Beer wi ning the 0-600 Rubbe r Tire class a board a KTM 500 . Second-generatio n h ill cl imb ve tera ns T ravis Whitl o ck (now li v in g in Co lo ra do) a nd Kenny Kimball topped th e other tw o classes. Kimball mad e fou rtenths of a second worth $500 when he se t fas t time over Whitlock in the Open ru bber Tire cl ass. Whitlo ck , in turn, smoked to a ti me nearly two seconds fas ter than runner-u p Nolan Martin. Paying o nly $500 to win, the advanced class is not a big factor in the purse, but this class that pits the fas tes t six finis hers in th e two rubber ti re classes in a two-ru ns / winner- tak e-all championship at the end of the event is ve ry high on prest ige. Th e ad vanced-class w inner is con sid ered the event and Montana state· champio n. Whitlock ripped another fast time to win the advanced clas s by a second ove r Chris Herman . In the end, though, despite a preponderance of Montana-based rid ers, Whitlock ($3640) and Kimball ($2650) w er e th e big-money wi n ners. Cham berlain ($2350), Beer ($1850) and Dave Johnson ($1825) w eren't too far be hi nd . Beer ca n usually be count ed o n to collect a large r sha re of the pie, bu t d isaster struck ea rly o n Sunday when he crashed a nd hurt his leg after free-falling from the top of the face. Desp ite riding in pain, he finished all his classes and four runs in the ad van ced class. Thi s was th e 79th annual hillclirnb, and the climb has been held in the sa me loca tion' for more th an 50 years, and the yea rs of clim bing h a v e n 't made the short but cha llenging hill any easier . In fact, the wet w inter allowed the bottom of the hill to sag, and that left a jumble of violent vertical led ges in th e middle of the hill that pro ved a more effec tiv e sto pper for rid ers th an th e more spectacular IS-foo t verti cal face at the top of the hill. As if the hill w eren 't already d iabol ical eno ugh, the club threw in numero us turns for th e ljghter bi ke s th at m ad e esta blishing mom entum nearl y impossible. Getting a good. draw in th e riding order proved critical. Too early and the ledges w ere unmercifull y sharp-ed ged; too lat e and rid ers wer e faced with bikeswallowing ruts. Wh en the event got under way - in fro nt of a huge, 20,000-st rong crowd Beer topped a close-fought victory with .<1 22.218-second ride in the 600cc class. -Ma rtin and C ha mberla in were also in the 22-second brack et, wit h Kennv Kimba ll, Jerry Seel ey and Pete Loo~is following wit h tim es in t he 23 -second range. Dave John ston was the only rid er in th e 24-seco nd brack et, and he was th e firs t rid er to top the hill. Th e small, 16rider Sen ior class used a d ifferen t line si nce the midhill S-tu rn had becom e so deeply rutted, and David Ruff took the win with a 16.444. Sunday' s fes tivi ties got started ... ith v th e 0-700 Unlimited class. Sin ce the ru les are so lax in this class, th e line they have to u se is much m ore d ifficult than for the o ther classes. Right afte r th e short, ~ 30- foot run a t the base of the h ill, th e course turned hard left, drop ped slightly downhill ; th en required r id ers to crank a hard ri ght run u p a bike- high ve rtical ledge. Many rid er s ended their day there, wi th in spitting di stan ce of the sta rt. Rid ers th at d id b u rs t over the ledge faced an off-cambe r run to gain speed befor e th e jumble of ledges midhill. W hi tlock was the bes t here . He unleashed his potent Honda C R500R, hit the first sh ort vertical jump and used bas ic su percross techniqu es to throw the bike up and ou t to clear all the rest of the h u mps a nd b litz the u pper th ir d sha le slump an d the vertical face at the top in 19.983 seconds. All of the 15 ride rs w ho ea rned m on ey in this class topped the hill . Next up w as th e "big iron" classes. The sou nd and speed of these mad-scien tis t h ybrids and their 300-foot roosts are what really bring th e specta to rs to the climb. On his first attem pt, Kimball u s ed th e 12 00cc. H onda-engin ed machine that he bu ilt in the earlv 1980s to collect another pa ycheck . Whitlock was jus t three-tenths of a seco nd slower, with Michael Rees or a no t he r thre etenths behind him. Ni nth -p laced Brand on Whitlock w as th e final rider ove r, with a 19-seco nd run. Most of the sa me bikes and rid ers were back for Open Unlimit ed . The class is just what its name suggests, and asi de from some sa fety ru les, it is a run-whatyou-bru ng affair . The b ikes run the same hill as the Open Tire class, so times were faster. Chamberlain held the throttle on in the rut formed at th e to p of th e hill, s pun out and slid backwa rd through the timer bea m . The rules require that th e rider have one hand on the ha ndlebar when it breaks the beam to be considered a complete run, so his GSX-Rll00-powered rid e of 12.157 was th e fas tes t in th e class and the quickest of the event. Johnst on was second and Travis Wh itlock w as thi rd . Eve ry rider in the top 10 topped the hill. Then th e to p six riders in the two Tire classes faced off for th e adva nced class and the cha mpionship. Chris Hermann w as th e first rider over, soon after Kimball (w ho qua lified for the advanced class on bo th- sized m achines ) free-fell Travis Whit lock, here piloting his FJ120opowered machine up the .t reacherous hill, became the fi rst f ive-ti me Great American Hillclimb winner in modern times. do wn th e cliff at the top o n his C RSOO rid e. Seco nds late r he ran his four-cylind e r u p tw o secon ds fas te r th an Hermann. Wh itlock th en lined u p his FJ1200 and ripped off a ru n two seconds fas ter th an Kimba ll's . Whitlock's tim e stoo d and he became the firs t rid er in mod ern tim es to win the event five tim es. n Great Ameri can Hill climb Billings, Montana Resu lts: July 25-26, 1998 0-6 00 RUB8ER T I RE: 1. Dusty Beer; 2. No lan Martin; 3. Shannon C hamberlain: 4. Kennv Kimball ; 5. Jerry Seeley . -' SR : 1. David Ruff; 2. Ken Long; 3. Da n Frye; 4. Leroy Ebeling. 0-700 UNUM: 1. Travis Whitlock; 2. Nol.m Ma rtin ; 3. Ed Tay lor; 4. Dusty Been S. Kenny Kimba ll. 701-UP UN U M: 1. Shannon Chamberlain; 2. Dave Johnston; 3. Travis Whitlock.; 4. Larry Coleman: S. Robie Peterson, • OPE..~ RUBBER TIR E: 1. Kenn y Kimball ; 2.. Travis Whitlock; 3. Michael Rt.'CSOr; 4. Ron Zundel; S. Dusty Beer. ADVA NCED: 1. Travis \\-'hitlock..: 2. Oris Herman, 3. No lan Martin .